Anyone who’s fished knows that the first thing you need to do is bait your hook. When a worm is wriggling around and fighting for his life, this isn’t easy to do at all! If you only have paws to do the job, it’s even harder. Then you sit, rod in hand, and wait for some poor, unsuspecting fish to bite. This is relatively easy – you just wait for the float to move indicating that a poor unsuspecting fish is there ready to clamp down on your hook.
For some reason, no fish are biting! “The bear said in a whisper”.
“Why aren’t the fish biting, I wonder” asked the wolf.
“There’s nothing to lure the fish to the bait, so they’re not biting!” Sighed Petrovich, and he started to reel in his rod.
“What do you mean it’s not lured? Do we have to feed the fish? And to feed it with what?” everyone became interested.
“What do you mean, not being lured? Asked the bear. Do we have to feed the fish more than the bait on the hook? With what? Asked the wolf. All of a sudden, everyone was very interested.
“We need to use porridge to lure the fish” said, Petrovich
“OK ,“ agreed Petrovich, “ Come to fish again in a week or so. You’ll see.”
So from that day forward, Petrovich took his role seriously. Each night he made a huge pot of porridge, and every morning at sunrise he got up early and went down to the river to feed the fish.
“Fishy, fishy, here fishy fish” called Petrovich as he dropped huge globs of porridge into the water with a big wooden spoon. As he ladled the porridge into the water, fishes big and small, potbellied and silver, flat and small – all shapes and sizes and of every color, swam over as Petrovich put porridge into the water.
They were very funny, pushing and shoving each other as the gobbled up mouthfuls of porridge, gawking up at Petrovich with their big eyes, and wondering “Why is he so kind??”
Petrovich started to really enjoy feeding the fish. It was nice to have some responsibility. He was very happy to have someone to take care of and have someone think he was so kind. All the same, he felt a little bit guilty because he knew that he was only feeding the fish because his friends wanted to kill them…
“Well, did you feed the fish and fatten them up for the slaughter?” asked the sly fox?
“Well, they’re not ready *quite* yet, said Petrovich.
Within the week, the animals came to Petrovich.
“Well, how did it work, have the fish been lured?” asked the bear?
“Well, yeah” said Petrovich. “Too much so I think”
“Why, what do you mean, too much so?” asked the Wolf, surprised. “You mean the fish ate too much, or what?”
“Well, uh… The fish and I have become good friends” said Petrovich sheepishly. “They think that I’m kind and they say ‘Thank you’ when I feed them!”
“Who can fish say thank you?” The Bear said, doubtfully. “It can’t be true! Fish are dumb!”
“Come early tomorrow and you’ll see! Just don’t bring any rods.” Said Petrovich
First thing in the morning, Petrovich came to the bank with his big pot of pooridge. His friends were waiting for him.
“Here, fishy, fishy fishy” Called Petrovich quietly.
In just a few seconds, the entire river became silver from all of the fish coming to the surface to munch on porridge. Fish were swimming, spinning and making patterns all over. Suddenly the patterns formed into letters. Standing at the bank, the letters read “Good morning, Petrovich”
“Don’t you see now?” Said Petrovich, brushing away tears. “I fed the fish, and they started to love me. How can we possibly go fishing now?”
All of the animals were quiet. Their jaw draped open in surprise.
“Do whatever you like, guys” said Pertrovich. “But I won’t let you go after my fish. You can lure your own fish if you want to, but you’re not going to go fishing while my fish are here!”
Suddenly the fish began to whirl and spin and make another word pattern. It read “Thank you, Petrovich!”
The End
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